


A Day in the Life

by ScotlandEvander



Series: Over the Rainbow [27]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Training, F/M, Gen, M/M, Marriage Proposal, daily life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-18
Updated: 2013-07-18
Packaged: 2017-12-20 13:11:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/887671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScotlandEvander/pseuds/ScotlandEvander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regulus is stuck at Hogwarts, Sirius is like an excited puppy at Auror training, Remus can't find a job, James decides to ask Lily to marry him, and Severus makes a potion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day in the Life

**Disclaimer: If you know it, I fail to own it.**

* * *

Regulus Black had started his last year at Hogwarts. 

This year there was no Atlanta Black.

This year, he had no one. 

This year he had a pain on his arm and in his heart. 

This year, he was forced to sit with his fellow Death Eaters and recruit poor saps to worship the Dark Lord Smurf. 

This made him want to throw up. Dark Lord Smurf needed spies within Hogwarts. 

Dark Lord Smurf was somewhat annoyed Regulus had failed in his only task: recruit Atlanta Black. He was not too thrilled with what had happened. 

Atlanta Black broke up with him, graduated after making a ward that would alert Dumbledore who were Death Eaters and had been marked, and vanished off the face of the world. No one had seen or heard from her since she’d walked into the Spellsmith Headquarters in Edinburgh in June. She walked in and never came out. 

Regulus would know. He spent most of his summer “trailing” her. This meant, he spent most of his summer in the dingy flat across the street from the headquarters and waited for her to come out.

She never did. 

He had turned his post over to another faceless Death Eater, somewhat worried what would happen to Atlanta now that he wasn’t watching her. 

Dark Lord Smurf was not happy. Regulus could write a ten foot essay on how not happy Lord Smurf found himself. 

Since Atlanta Black had gone invisible, the burning pain Regulus’ arm was constant. It seemed if Smurf failed to be able to torture Regulus in person, he did it through his ugly Mark. 

Regulus was worried about her, despite telling himself to stop. He scanned the papers daily for her name. Her name appeared occasionally in the newspaper, having sold another ward, or created another stunning spell, but other than that— nothing. 

Tom was in the paper more often than she was. Or at least Regulus thought it was Tom, as the person went by the name TR DeVinette, which seemed like something Tom would come up with. 

Unconsciously, Regulus rubbed his left forearm. The pain was so often, he hardly was aware of it anymore. 

Who knew he’d get used to being in constant pain? 

“What crawled up your butt and died, Black?”

Regulus gave the person sitting next to him a cold, indifferent look. “A Smurf.”

Without waiting to explain, Regulus swept out of the Great Hall. 

It was going to be a long school year. 

* * *

“I’m so excited! I’m so excited! I’m so excited!”

Sirius bounced up and down a few times. 

“And you clearly cannot hide it,” Dorcas Meadows commented, watching Sirius bob up and down. 

“BLACK! Stop acting like a child!” Alastor Moody bellowed. 

Sirius stopped jumping. 

He was still excited. He was starting Auror training today. He was still somewhat amazed he had actually been accepted. James applied, but was rejected. It seemed rather stupid to reject someone who wanted to be an Auror in this war, but the program had standards.

Sirius met the standards!

His mother would be applauded.

He snickered at this thought.

“BLACK! PAY ATTENTION!” Moody bellowed. 

“Remind me not to sit next to you again,” Meadows muttered under her breath, moving her desk a bit aways from Sirius. 

Sirius frowned. 

“Now, this is your first day and I know you lot more than likely didn’t think you would be studying, but becoming an Auror is a three year deal. You will study, you will train, and you will be tested. First off, we will start with chapter one. Open your books.”

Sirius stared at the text book and bit back a sigh. While he hated reading and studying from textbooks, he was still giddy. He had peeked at the textbook last night and was surprised it actually held his attention for more than five minutes.

Sirius had already read chapter one. And chapter two. He had almost started to read chapter three when Remus showed up and distracted him. Sirius later laughed that their roles were reversed, as it was usually Sirius prying a book out of Remus’ hands. 

“This is going to be awesome!” Sirius sung out to Meadows, who in turn glared at him. 

“You’re like a puppy dog. Now shut up and quiz me on chapter one.”

“You read it too!”

“We were supposed to read it before class, you nimrod,” Meadow barked.

Sirius sobered up. “Obviously.”

Meadows quirked an eyebrow. “So, chapter one…” 

* * *

Remus threw down the last letter Zane had delivered. 

“Thank you, Zane,” Remus said quietly, offering the owl a piece of toast. 

The owl took the toast and flew out of the flat. Remus buried his face in his hands and let out a loud groan. 

Life was so unfair. 

He had been out of Hogwarts for seven months and still no job. He had a few leads, but they always fell through. It seemed everyone knew he was a werewolf somehow. Or they found out after a few weeks and fired him. He needed something. Anything. 

Remus sat up and set the last rejection letter on fire with his wand and wandered out of the tiny kitchen into the lounge. Sirius had bought a flat right out of school, using money his Uncle Alphard had given him in his will. This left Sirius rather well off, so he insisted Remus move in with him. 

Remus had refused, till his mother of all people insisted he do this. 

“You’re a grown man, you shouldn’t be living at home. Go, live with your friend and enjoy life!”

Remus told her he was a little more than a friend. His mother had actually winked at him and drifted out of the room. Remus left, feeling disturbed. 

“MOONY!”

Remus jolted, looking around the flat. He flicked his wrist and his wand appeared in his hand. While he had faith in the wards Sirius and Atlanta set up on the flat, they were still at war and Death Eaters were getting trickier. 

Though, Death Eaters wouldn’t call him Moony. 

“MOONY! I know you are in there, mate!”

“James?”

“Who else would be over here in the middle of the afternoon?” 

James had a point, but that was besides the point. 

“What do you turn into on the full moon?” Remus asked, pressing his ear to the door.

“A stag. What is your favorite kind of chocolate?”

“Cadburry Dairy Milk.”

“BINGO. Now let me in!”

Remus unlocked the door, magically and un-magically to reveal James Potter, his hair out of control and looking even wilder than usual.

“MOONY I DID IT!”

“Did what?” Remus asked, standing off to the side. 

James waved a box in Remus’ face, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. It was a blur of burgundy before his eyes. 

“James, I cannot tell what you are waving around.”

“I went to Gingotts today and got it! Look!”

Something was shoved under Remus’ nose. He backed up and peered down at it. It was a small, rounded edged box. Perfect for a piece of jewelry one would wear on a finger. 

“Ah, your family ring?”

“Did I grab the wrong one?”

“The box isn’t open.”

James opened the box and shoved it back under Remus’ nose so he was unable to see it. Remus grabbed his friend’s wrist and moved the box so he could see it. 

“As I stated before, you got your family ring out of the vault.”

James quickly moved the box and took a closer look at the ring. “Moony, this is an engagement ring. It’s not my family ring. Don’t scare me like that.”

“I meant it’s what you Potters use to ask other non-Potters to marry you Potters. I wouldn’t use that to ask someone to marry me, as I am not a Potter.”

“Oh. Yes, it’s the family ring. The one my grandmother used.” 

“Are you asking?” Remus joked dryly.

“My grandmother? No, she’s dead.”

Remus pressed his face into his own hand. 

“So, are you asking?” Remus asked.

“Yes. I am asking.” 

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m with Sirius. I do not see you that way. I’m so sorry we had to have this discussion.”

James smacked him. “I’m asking Lily! It matches her eyes.”

James brandished the ring and the box in Remus’ face again. James continued to bounce around the flat for the remainder of the afternoon till Sirius came home from Auror School. (It was a sore point for Sirius he was still going to school and not out fighting bad guys.) Sirius bounced with James for fifteen minutes till he managed something Remus had been unable to do for the past five hours: he kicked James out of the flat.

“God, I thought I was going to strangle him,” Sirius moaned, collapsing on the couch. “I’m exhausted. Moody had us running in circles. Literally. Circles. With textbooks on our heads.” 

“Sorry. What’s for dinner?”

“I don’t know. Can you believe James is going to ask her? I wonder if she’ll hex him?”

“I doubt it. I have a feeling she’ll say yes.”

“I heard today my mother is trying to get Regulus hitched,” Sirius said in an attempt to sound conversational. “And guess what?”

“He’s not going for it?”

“How’d you guess? I was shocked Regulus was putting his foot down.”

Remus sighed. “Sirius, we both witnessed his behavior last year at school. He spent most of it looking dead on his feet.”

Sirius made a noise. “Yeah. You’d think he’d get over it. Atlanta did.”

Remus held his tongue. Atlanta was simply better at hiding it than Regulus. Atlanta had distractions all around her. She had Tom Riddle, her Ravenclaw friends Xeno Lovegood and Steven Moffat, and Lily and the Marauders. Regulus had Death Eaters— not the best company.  

“Hey, is that an owl?” Sirius asked, pointing out the window. 

Remus turned around and peeked. Sure enough, what appeared to be a Hogwarts owl was careening at their window. Remus scrambled to open the window when Sirius made no move to open it. The owl nosedived in, dropped the letter on Sirius’ head and swooped back out.

“Ouch. Why did it drop this on my head? It’s for you.”

Sirius held out the letter and Remus took it. He recognized Dumbledore’s handwriting. Gulping, he broke the seal and read the letter. After he finished it, he re-read it. 

“Well? What does Dumbles want?” Sirius asked.

“To teach me Occlumency.”

“Ocular what?” Sirius asked.

“Occlumency. It’s a magical defense method to protect one’s mind from external penetration.”

“Dirty.”

Remus slapped Sirius with the letter. He walked over to the couch and sat down. 

“It’s also used in order to organize thoughts, emotions and such. It helps you also close your mind and control your reactions to things in tough situations. You can become blank and empty at a moment’s notice, making it harder for your enemy to know what you might be thinking,” Remus rattled off. “It’s the only defense against Legilimency.”

“Remus, stop using big words. My head hurts. Why does Dumbledore want you to know this?”

“I have no idea. He claims it will be beneficial to me in the future,” Remus said. 

Sirius shrugged. He sat down next Remus, fell over and placed his head in Remus’ lap. Remus folded up the letter and stared down at Sirius, who promptly fell asleep. 

* * *

“What made me think I could be a Healer?”

Lily yanked at her hair, collapsing into a chair in her flat. Suddenly, she became aware she could smell cooking food. She sat up straight. 

“Mary, are you cooking?”

Her flatmate should NOT be allowed to cook in the kitchen. Her flatmate on more than one occasion had attempted to BURN the flat down. 

“I am not MARY!” said a rather manly sounding voice from the kitchen. 

Eyes wide, Lily stood up and crossed the hall into the kitchen. In her kitchen stood James Potter in a flowered apron, a wooden spoon in his hand. On the hob were several pots, all issuing steam. She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. 

James Potter was in the kitchen. Wearing a flower apron.

James Potter cooked? 

“Now, scram. I’m making you a romantic dinner. Go soak in the bath. Don’t you women like to do that after a long day?” James asked, his free hand on his hip.

Lily ogled him for a moment longer before muttering about her sanity and going to the loo. She ran a bath, threw in an abnormal amount of bath salts and sunk down into the tub, convincing herself she was seeing things. 

James Potter was not in the kitchen wearing a flower apron cooking. She must have inhaled some sort of potion that induced vivid hallucinations. 

A half hour later, she emerged, washed, relaxed and smelling like jasmine. The flat still smelled of Italian spices and from the lounge, she could tell candles were lit in a romantic sense. She slowly walked over to the lounge to find it transformed into a romantic bistro. 

“Lily Flower, my darling, come sit,” James called, holding out a chair. 

Lily stared. 

“Lily?”

“Who are you and what have you done with James Potter?”

“I am James Potter.”

“Prove it.”

James stared at her, looking confused. 

“Er…third year, I asked you out and you said no. Then, you hexed me and my toe tails grew so fast and thick, they broke through my shoes.”

Lily let out a sigh. Only James Potter would admit that and smile. 

“After that, you charmed my hair bright green, gave me tentacles…oh, once you gave me an elephant trunk for a nose…Oh! Then there was the time you hexed me to the ceiling of the common room. It’s very high up there.”

Lily walked over to the chair and sat down. 

“Now, before we eat, since you’re reacting badly to the fact I did this, I’m going to ask you before I get the food in here, as that would be very messy and I don’t want to deal with that on a night like tonight.”

Lily eyed him wearily. 

James got down on one knee, opened a burgundy box and held it out to her. “Marry me.”

“Is that a request or an order?”

“Request. I know better than to order you.”

“Why not ask?”

“Er…honestly?”

“Yes.”

“Atlanta suggested I just request it. Also, she said you don’t like run of the mill and everything I planned I guess is very run of the mill, so a demand-slash-request was the best way to ask.”

Lily eyed him, not sure what to respond to that bit of information. 

“Fine. But I’m testing the food for potions,” Lily announced, standing up and storming into the kitchen. Behind her she heard James sigh. 

After fifteen minutes of doing every spell she could think of on the food James had prepared, she found nothing wrong with it, so she grabbed the ring from him and put it on. It resized itself to her finger. She stared at the bright green stone that matched her eyes. 

“Fine. But, I get to pick the date.”

She sat down at the table. 

“Of course you do. I wouldn’t dream of it any other way.” 

“And I will kill Atlanta,” Lily announced. “She ruined my day.”

James looked perplexed, but Lily never explained she was like any little girl and had dreamed of being asked to marry the man of her dreams. And that included “Will you marry me?” not “Marry me.” 

The next morning, at five in the morning, Atlanta Black received a Howler. 

Atlanta never tried to give advice to James again. She stuck to giving romantic advice to Sirius, as Remus had never sent her a Howler. 

* * *

Severus blinked. 

Hard.

The fumes were killing him. Whatever this potion was, it was nasty. The Dark Lord had not told Severus what the potion was, just how to make it. It looked to be a potion of the Dark Lord’s making, as it was in his handwriting. Severus hated to admit it, but the Dark Lord had very beautiful handwriting. It was neat, artful and elegant. It reminded Severus of a bygone era. 

“How is it coming, Severus?” a cold, high voice asked from behind him. 

Severus did not bother to turn to look at the Dark Lord, knowing when brewing a potion the Dark Lord understood his full attention was needed on what Severus was doing. 

“It is coming along,” Severus answered. 

“How are your studies going?”

“Fine.”

“When will you achieve mastery level?”

“Three years,” Severus answered. 

He internally glowered. Atlanta Black was getting her mastery in a few weeks. And, if the newspaper was anything to go by, she had already built up a good fortune selling her wards. Severus was working for a pittance at an apothecary. 

“Ah,” the Dark Lord said. “I have a mission for you this evening. You will go to the an restaurant called The Witchery by the Castle. I have information that certain members of the Order of the Phoenix are meeting there to celebrate something there this evening.”

Severus paused for a moment in his stirring to give the Dark Lord a quizzical look. While young, Severus had managed to win the Dark Lord’s approval rather quickly after he graduated ten months ago. The Dark Lord saw something within Severus and favored him above many of his most trusted followers. Severus discovered this allowed him some leeway when dealing with the volatile man. 

Hence the quizzical look that did not end with Severus screaming on the ground. 

“ It seems Miss Black is being awarded her mastery after less than a year of study. It seems this is a joint celebration for her as well as other things. Hopefully, if she is interacting with others, you can observe her movements. I’ve made all the arrangements. You will use this hair,” the Dark Lord held out a vile with a few hairs in it. Severus took it. “You leave at seven.”

Turning, the Dark Lord left and Severus went back to stirring. 

More often than not, the spying missions Severus was sent on were in Edinburgh and were in hopes of observing Atlanta Black. No one had seen her since graduation. Regulus Black reported seeing her walk into the Spellsmith Headquarters, but she never came out. 

It was April and no one had seen head or tail of her. 


End file.
